Chapter Two


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Kiwi and Alex catch up a little before Pistacio shows up to demand that Alex is punished for attacking Gardenia, and because he is a monster. Kiwi is able to explain the situation and get the fairies to back off and let Alex leave. They talk some more about the way he left eight years ago and why as they make their way more carefully through town. Kiwi offers to take Alex to see the rest of his friends but before they can set off his alarm clock wakes him up back to Earth.

Alex wakes up and immediately crosses the room to tell Dan about his return to Dreamland. However, Dan get angry and tells Alex to just drop the story. Alex spends all day in and out of classes thinking about Dreamland some more and decides to go see Nicole. He goes in to tell her that he had another dream, but gets distracted when she calls him cute. He pushes for another chance at a date but she turns him down again before directing the conversation back to the dream. He hesitates but eventually explains the sword necklace sent by his mom. She suggests he try using the necklace again tonight and they will talk more in the morning if he has another dream.

Alex heads back to his dorm room and after a moment of thought goes to Dan's foot locker and digs out the Dreamland Chronicles journal from when he was eight. He is soon engrossed in the story and doesn't notice Dan come back into the room. Dan is immediately upset about Alex looking through his stuff and they begin to argue again. Alex doesn't see the problem, but Dan gets mad enough to throw Alex out of the room. They yell at each other through the door for a little while before Alex wanders off across campus to the sleep lab. Alex asks Nicole if he could sleep on the couch in the waiting room but she warns him that there will be people there all night. Instead, she offers him a place in the sleep study and gets him set up to sleep wired to machines for the experiment.

Soon Alex is back in Dreamland and finds Kiwi waiting for him. They soon set off for Buttonville Heights where we learn that Paddington is teaching the teddy bears to dance. However, Alex can't fly anymore so Kiwi has to help by carrying him. They fly over the Cyclops Islands and set down in the middle of town where Kiwi reintroduces Alex to the teddy bears. The teddy bears then lead Alex and Kiwi to where Paddington is teaching and we see that he has grown before he moves over to greet Alex. After taking a moment to recognize him, Paddington scoops up Alex and gives him a hug. They talk about the sword and the other children that visit Dreamland but Alex is interrupted when he is suddenly woken up.

Back on Earth, we learn that Nicole woke Alex up because as soon as he started to dream he lost all brain activity and she was worried he had died.


 * Continue to Chapter Three